Scientists confirm existence of elusive 117th element

The periodic table is about to get crowded with the addition of a new, super-heavy element!
Researchers, including those from India, have created atoms of element 117, matching the heaviest atoms ever observed, which are 40 per cent heavier than an atom of lead.
The measured decay properties by an international collaboration working at the GSI accelerator laboratory in Germany match previous data, strengthening the case for official recognition of 117 as a new element.
The finding marks an important step towards the capability to observe still more long-lived super-heavy nuclei, as expected to exist on the 'island of stability' of super-heavy elements, researchers said.

The experiment was performed by an international team of chemists and physicists headed by Professor Christoph Dullmann, from SGI Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM).
The team included 72 scientists and engineers from 16 institutions in Australia, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

Elements beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as super-heavy elements. The most long-lived ones are expected to be situated on a so-called 'island of stability', where nuclei with extremely long half-lives should be found.
Although super-heavy elements have not been found in nature, they can be produced by accelerating beams of nuclei and shooting them at the heaviest possible target nuclei.

Fusion of two nuclei - a very rare event - occasionally produces a super-heavy element.
Those currently accessible generally only exist for a short time.
Initial reports about the discovery of an element with atomic number 117 were released in 2010.
In the new research, the special berkelium target material, essential for the synthesis of element 117, was produced over an 18-month-long campaign.
Atoms of element 117 were separated from huge numbers of other nuclear reaction products and were identified through their radioactive decay.
These measured chains of alpha-decays produced isotopes of lighter elements with atomic numbers 115 to 103, whose registration added to the proof for the observation of element 117.

"The successful experiments on element 117 are an important step on the path to the production and detection of elements situated on the 'island of stability' of super-heavy elements," Professor Horst Stocker, Scientific Director of GSI, said.